Mia, Myself and I

How do I figure out my full heredity?

My father’s side of the family comes from the clan MacNeil, and my mother’s maiden name is Jackson. Her mother’s maiden name was Frye. I also know that some of my father’s relatives immigrated from Novi Scotia. Is there any way for me to learn more about my heritage?

The best thing is to trace your ancestry starting with yourself and working back one generation at a time. The further back you go you will find yourself in a myriad of family lines. When you do, work on one line and when you run into a brickwall, set it aside and work on another.

Talk to family. Find out if any has any old family bibles. Ask to see and make copies of birth, marriage and death certificates. Also, depending on the religious faith, baptismal, first communion, confirmation and marriage certificates can be valuable.
Your elderly are good to talk with and if they will let you tape them. They might be confused on some things, but I have heard people say that has done this that they go back and listen to the tape again after doing research and hear things they didn’t hear the first time around. There are things that you wouldn’t write down that just might be very significant. You have to understand, us old folks just like to tell the younguns about old timey.

Ancestry.Com is a website that can’t be touched for its original source records. Just don’t take as absolute fact everything you see in family trees on their website, or any website, free or not free.
They are subscriber submited, seldom documented or if so, poorly documented. You frequently will see different info on the same people from different subscribers. Then you will see the absolute same info on the same people from different subscribers, but you would be very foolish if you thought that meant it was accurate. A lot of people copy without verifying.
The information can be useful as clues only as to where to get the documentation. Documentation is the meat of genealogy.

Now some will suggest a DNA test. Most companies in Genealogy DNA only use Y & Mitochondrial which can be a very useful tool if you are doing family research in helping to match yourself to another’s family tree. Y goes from father to son only.. Mitochondrial goes from mother to both sons and daughters but only the daughters pass it on to their children. It goes back in a straight line virtually unchanged. However, it is a waste of money for someone who just wants to know their regional/ethnic background. That is because it represents a very teeny weeny part of your total ancestry.

Right off the bat it will leave out your paternal grandmother and your maternal grandfather. If you get back to your 6xgreat grandparents(that is 9 generations including yourself), you are directly descended from 510 individuals. Of those 510, you get your Mitochondrial from only 8 leaving out 502 people and if you had a brother to do his Y DNA it would only come from 8 people. Altogether 494 people will be left out.

There is one company that will take your Autosomal DNA and give you your top 20 Match Likelihood Indexes to population groups throughout the world. While you get your genes 50-50 from both parents, I have found out you do not get your DNA 50-50 from both parents. It is a toss up how you or any of your siblings get it. Your genes are made up of DNA

http://www.searchmytree.com/Inheritance.php

http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/2008/03/15/genetic-testing-on-nbcs-today-show/&action=edit/

The company that does the testing is

http://www.DNAtribes.com

When you go into their website there is a way you can email them and ask questions.

I asked DNA tribes if my sister with whom I share both parents had the same Autosomal testing and they replied:

“Two siblings will each obtain unique results. Family members do typically share some regional or ethnic genetic affiliations, but in some cases matches can vary substantially between siblings.”

Now if you are going to do family history, FamilyTreeDNA is the best.

http://www.familytreedna.com/

HOwever, just to get your regiona/ethnic breakdown don’t use FamilyTreeDNA. They do Autosomal testing but they would not give me an analysis and I had to send it to DNATribes. Also don’t also use Ancestry.Com or National Geographic as the only do Y & Mitochondrial. ONe of the companies that only uses Y & Mitochondrial advertise they will help you discover your “deep ancestral roots.” It is true they will assign your Mitochondrial to a Haplogroup based on your DNA and take you back thousands of years to your nomadic ancestor. However, it is only your deep ancestral root in that one line and if your brother did his Y it would only be his ancestral root in that one line.

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